• A hardcover pictorial album, 25 x 25.5 cm, bound in black buckram with silver lettering to spine, in pictorial dust jacket; pp.: [1-6] 7-175 [176 blank], total 88 leaves, illustrated in colour throughout. Title-page: Shunga | EROTIC ART | IN JAPAN | ROSINA BUCKLAND | THE BRITISH MUSEUM PRESS || Subject: Art, Japanese – Edo period, 1600-1868; Erotic art – Japan; Prints, Japanese – History. Contributor: Rosina Buckland (British, b. 1974)
  • Hardcover volume, 29.6 x 25 x 4 cm, in red cloth with black lettering to spine, in pictorial dust jacket, profusely illustrated in colour; pp.: [1-6] 7-536, total 268 leaves and 2 folding plates extraneous to collation. Title-page: {Hotei's device} Hotei Publishing | Shunga | sex and pleasure in Japanese art | Edited by | Timothy Clark | C. Andrew Gerstle | Aki Ishigami | Akiki Yano || Contents: The Cultural Historical Significance and Importance of Japanese Shunga / Kobayashi Tadashi. Introduction: What Was Shunga? / C. Andrew Gerstle; Who Were the Audiences for Shunga? / Hayakawa Monta. (1) Early Shunga before 1765: Shunga Paintings before the `Floating World' / Akiko Yano; Chinese Chunhua and Japanese Shunga / Ishigami Aki; Shunga and the Rise of Print Culture / Asano Shugo. (2) Masterpieces of Shunga 1765-1850: The Essence of Ukiyo-e Shunga / Kobayashi Tadashi; Erotic Books as Luxury Goods / Ellis Tinios; Listening to the Voices in Shunga / Hayakawa Monta; The Tale of Genji in Shunga / Sato Satoru. (3) Censorship: Timeline of Censorship; Shunga and Censorship in the Edo Period (1600-1868) / Jennifer Preston; Graph of approximate output of shunga print series and books; The Censorship of Shunga in the Modern Era / Ishigami Aki; Shunga Studies in the Showa Era (1926-89) / Shirakura Yoshihiko. (4) Contexts for Shunga: Traditional Uses of Shunga / Yamamoto Yukari; The Distribution and Circulation of Erotic Prints and Books in the Edo Period Laura Moretti; Shunga and Parody / C. Andrew Gerstle; Popular Cults of Sex Organs in Japan / Suzuki Kenko; Grotesque Shunga / Ishigami Aki; Violence in Shunga / Higuchi Kazutaka; Foreign Connections in Shunga / Timon Screech; Children in Shunga / Akiko Yano; Shunga and the Floating World / Matsuba Ryoko. (5) Shunga in the Meiji Era: Erotic Art of the Meiji Era (1868-1912) / Rosina Buckland; The Modern West's Discovery of Shunga / Ricard Bru. Published to accompany the exhibition Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese art at the British Museum from 3 October 2013 to 5 January 2014. Abstract: This catalogue aims to answer some key questions about what is shunga and why it was produced. In particular, the social and cultural contexts for sex art in Japan are explored. Erotic Japanese art was heavily suppressed in Japan from the 1870s onwards as part of a process of cultural 'modernisation' that imported many contemporary western moral values. Only in the last twenty years or so has it been possible to publish unexpurgated examples in Japan and this landmark book places erotic Japanese art in its historical and cultural context for the first time. This book looks at painted and printed erotic images produced in Japan during the Edo period (1600-1868) and early Meiji era (1868-1912). These are related to the wider contexts of literature, theatre, the culture of the pleasure quarters, and urban consumerism; and interpreted in terms of their sensuality, reverence, humour and parody. Contributors: Timothy Clark (British, b. 1959) Timothy Clark (British, b. 1959) C. Andrew Gerstle (American, 1951) Aki Ishigami [石上阿希] (Japanese) Akiki Yano
  • NEW
    Softcover, 228 x 155 mm, embossed geometrical diaper pink French flapped wrappers with black and orange lettering to front; collated 8vo: 1-108, i.e. 80 leaves, pp.: [4] [1-4] 5-152 [4], plus 12 colour plates; woodcut t.p. vignette, head- and tailpieces in sanguine. Text printed on wove paper watermarked Marais, untrimmed, some leaves uncut; colour illustrations produced by half-tone relief photo reproduction technique and printed on thinner paper without a watermark. Colouring is most probably made by hand. Besides the presence of the platemarks, micro-photo reveals clear signs of the half-tone relief photomechanical reproduction method: Title-page (red and black): SPADDY | COLETTE | OU | LES AMUSEMENTS DE BON TON | ROMAN | {vignette} | A SAINT – CLOUD | AU TEMPLE DE CYTHÈRE || Limitation: CE ROMAN, EDITÉ POUR DES AMATEURS ET | NON MIS DANS LE COMMERCE, A ETÉ TIRÉ | A 250 EXEMPLAIRES, SUR VELIN PUR FIL | DU MARAIS, NUMÉROTÉS A LA PRESSE. | Cet exemplaire porte le No 49 Catalogue Raisonné: Dutel III № 1254: second edition with reproduction plates, published in 1939. The 1st edition with the original plates after Bécat was published in c. 1938. Honesterotica.com:
    Colette, ou les amusements de bon ton (Colette, Good Time Amusements) was an important early commission from Bécat by the master clandestine publisher Maurice Duflou, to complement a text bordering on the outrageous by Johannès Gros…
    Contributors: Spaddy [Johannès Gros] (French, 18.. – 1937) – author Maurice Duflou (French, 1885 – 1947) – publisher Paul-Émile Bécat (French, 1885 – 1960) – artist
  • Description: single volume 24.5 x 19 cm, collated 4to, bound by a previous owner in quarter red morocco over marbled boards, raised bands, with gilt lettering in compartments: "SPADDY | DÉVERGONDAGES", red marbled endpapers. Printed on wove paper with watermark “RIVES”. Title-page: SPADDY | DÉVERGONDAGES | BRUXELLES | Aux Dépens d'un Amateur | 1948 || Pagination: [4] – blank, [1, 2] – h.t. / limitation, [3, 4] – t.p. / blank, 5-151 [152] – blank, [4] – blank; uncut, illustrated with 16 hand-coloured lithographs extraneous to collation after watercolours by Féodor Rojankowski [Rojan]. Table of contents on p. 151. Limitation: 250 copies of which №№ I – XVI with original watercolour and b/w suite of plates and №№ 17-250 on Rives paper with coloured lithography; this copy is № 100 of 234 Rives paper copies. Catalogue Raisonné: J.-P. Dutel (1920–1970) № 1389 / p. 128.
  • Artist: Torii Kiyonaga [鳥居 清長] (Japanese, 1752 – 1815) Color woodblock print: makimono-e (11.4 x 65.4 cm). Year: c. 1785. Three sheets of the series of twelve, № 6, № 9, and № 11, "from Kiyonaga's most idiosyncratic and celebrated series of pornography. It was designed as part of a miniature handscroll (makimono) to place in one's sleeve, where it was carried both for its stimulatory and for its talismanic properties." [LIB-1474.2018Important Japanese prints from the collection of Henry Steiner by Sebastian Izzard.]  

    Picture № 6. (31d in LIB-2971.2022)

    № 6: "The woman's blackened teeth indicate that she is a wife. This middle-aged couple is relaxing and drowsing after lovemaking. The scene is peaceful now., but the pillow cast aside hints at their earlier, passionate lovemaking".

    Picture № 9.

    № 9: "This looks to be the first sexual experience of a young woman of a well-to-do family, who covers her mouth shyly. The more experienced man moistens his fingers with saliva, eager to explore the young woman's body".

    Picture № 11. (31g in LIB-2971.2022)

    № 11: "The woman wears a so-called Iwata sash signalling that she is pregnant. The man approaches from behind so as not to put pressure on her stomach. He shows care and gentle consideration toward his pregnant wife, who appears relaxed". Picture descriptions from Shunga: Sex and Pleasure in Japanese art. Edited by Timothy Clark, C. Andrew Gerstle, Aki Ishigami, Akiki Yano. Hotei Publishing, 2013. Ref.: [LIB-2971.2022] Chris Uhlenbeck, Margarita Winkel. Japanese erotic fantasies sexual imagery of the Edo period. — Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, ©2005; p. 118-9 (№ 31).
  • Softcover, french flapped wrappers, 29 x 19 cm, in glassine dustjacket, text printed on laid paper, pp.: [1-10] 11-256 [8], total 264 pages plus 11 plates out of 12, hand-coloured etchings on wove paper laid in, extraneous to collation. Wrappers detached from the block. Some pages uncut. Below is the missing plate, according to honesterotica.com: Title-page: LES FILLES | DE LOTH | • | et autres poèmes | érotiques | recueillis par le | Vidame de Bozegy | • | A SODOME | — Imprimerie de la Genèse — | 1933 || Edition limited to 500 copies, this is copy № 54. Catalogue raisonné: Dutel III № 1575. Edmond Dardenne Bernard [Vidame de Bozegy] (French, 20th c.) – author. André Collot (French, 1897 – 1976) – artist.
  • Description: Two volumes in one, collated 4to, 32.5 x 25.3 cm, bound in 19th-century long-grain green shagreen, flapped portfolio with a bronze lock clasp, gilt centrepiece fleuron, gilt- and blind-tooled boards and spine, spine with false raised bands, gilt-lettered "ESSAI | SUR LA MORALE"; text printed on bluish laid paper, blue marbled pastedowns; h.t. and t.p. in both volumes present. Restoration and conservation by  Zukor art conservation in September 2022. Title-page: LA PUCELLE | D'ORLÉANS, | POËME EN VINGT-UN CHANTS. | Par VOLTAIRE | Édition ornée de Figures gravées par les meilleurs | Artistes de Paris. | — | TOME PREMIER (TOME SECOND). | — | A PARIS, | DE L’IMPRIMERIE DE DIDOT LE JEUNE. | L’AN TROISIÈME. || Imprint: A PARIS, | Chez les Frères Jacquenod, rue de Condé, no. 15. | A LYON,  chez les mêmes. || Collation: Vol. 1: A-Z4, 2A-2H4 2I2; total 126 leaves; Vol. 2: A-Z4, 2A4 2B2, 2C-D4, 2E3 2F-2N4; total 141 leaves; first and last blank, plus 21 plates extraneous to collation, 8 in the 1st volume (incl. frontispiece) and 13 in the 2nd. Pagination: Vol. 1: [1-5] 6-251 [252], total 252 pages, ils; Note: leave 2A1 has a loss of 1/6 of the top, leave 2A2 torn out completely; Vol. 2: [1-5] 6-212, 2[211] 2212 [213] 214-279 [280], duplication of numbers 211 and 212 => total 282 pages, ils. The total number of pages in the volume is 534; one page torn out (187/8 in Vol. 1) Catalogue raisonné: Nordmann (2): № 562, p. 278; Cohen-deRicci: 1034. According to Nordmann (Christie’s), it was an edition illustrated with 21 plates after Lebarbier, Marillier, Monnet and Monsiau produced by various engravers; in the 1840s those plates were replaced with 24 lithographs by Achille Devéria, who signed them “LONDON”. In Nordmann’s copy, there is also a set of hand-coloured lithographs. There are only 21 plates in our copy, lacking three as per the source. Contributors : François Marie Arouet de Voltaire (French, 1694 – 1778) – author. Achille Devéria (French, 1800 – 1857) – artist. Pierre-Nicolas-Firmin Didot [Didot le Jeune] (French, 1769 – 1836) – publisher.
  • Description: Softcover, 23 x 14.5 cm, original flapped wrappers, spine and front cover lettered in blue «WANDA DE S…. FRANÇOISE | OU | LES PLAISIRS DU MARIAGE | AUX ALLÉES DES ROSES», leaves untrimmed. Title-page: WANDA DE S…. | FRANÇOISE | OU | LES PLAISIRS DU MARIAGE | {vignette} | AUX ALLÉES DES ROSES ||  Collation: [1]8 (1 blank in wrapper, 1 blank, h.t., t.p., f.t.p., 3 leaves of text), 2-148 15(uncut), 116 leaves total plus 10 hand-coloured photogravures by anonymous, extraneous to collation. Pagination: [1-10] 11-224 [8], ils.; 232 pages total. Limitation: edition under subscription, limited to 600 copies of which 100 copies (№ 1-100) on pur fil and 500 copies (№ 101-600) on Vélin, this is № 142. Edition: 1st edition thus, printed by Maurice Darantiere, illustrated with 10 full-page coloured photogravures after an anonymous artist, attributed by some to Feodor Rojankovsky [Rojan] and by some to Louis Berthomme Saint-André. According to J.-P. Dutel, the original watercolours in his collection signed Véronique. Catalogue raisonné: Dutel (1920-1970): 1605, p. 176; honesterotica.com.